First off, this GOG version is THE way to go. The steam version had some really stupid bs where you can literally only USE the items you get from the season pass ONCE. You'll lose the DLC items if you're playing on a separate install or PC from the one you first did. Thankfully with this one it doesn't matter! How it should have been from day one. As for the game itself, if you liked Human Revolution, you will like this one. They are both very different from the first 2 DX games, but they're still great nonetheless. I wholeheartedly recommend them both. Beautiful graphics, great dialogue, continually some of the best music I've ever heard in a game, beautiful dystopian cyberpunk atmosphere/world, and lots of other things. You can play the game either stealthily or guns blazing, so it's a mix between stealth and fps. My only real negative with both games is that they're not as open ended like the first game. It's alot more linear feeling. This isn't a bad thing, more just a little nitpick in comparison to the freedom the first game had. Everything else, I really love about these games and really think you should grab them and give them a chance if you haven't already.
This is the first officially released port of Blood out of Dosbox. There were some fan source ports, but I don't think they're as good as this one, despite several small tiny bugs. nBlood was probably the best fan one, but its online play wasn't working with more than 3 people and was extremely difficult to set up hosting for. If you haven't played Blood, just get it already, you've been missing out BIG TIME! It's the best game on the Build engine & IMO of all time. As for this port; it captures the responsiveness and fluidity of the original version on time-specific hardware (which none of the fan ports have been able to properly replicate aside from nBlood). The graphics and music are the same as the original to keep the same spirit but are slightly enhanced to feel better. There's also achievements, and I'm happy to say the multiplayer WORKS!!! The netcode has been fixed to allow 8 player bloodbath or co-op, just as the original intended. And while not many may care; they impressively managed to add in a split screen mode, no other source port has had this, but it works without any hiccups or performance issues, so that's great. The cutscenes work well too as the original did, though slightly lower in quality. On top of that the custom content manager is great and works very well, though some of the mods/fan addons will have to update their cutscene filetypes due to this version switching it. The ONLY thing I can really complain about is the lack of quicksaves, but you can still save whenever so it's no big deal. There are some very small bugs, but none that would really affect your gameplay unless you're a daily competitive player or something. All in all; this is a near flawless release with some small bugs that will undoubtedly be fixed in due time. Do yourself a massive favor, and get it! I will also be making a video review on this version sometime soon (@Retrodeath Reviews on Youtube) if you would like to see a little more than just this paragraph.
This is a game I actually played when I was much younger. I was looking through some abandonware site, and my little 8 year old self (or however old I was at the time) glew up in excitement seeing a game that looked as beautiful, explosive, & violent as this one. I ended up loving it even more than I thought I would, and it became something of just a fond memory of mine once my dad got rid of that PC. Now, after finally realizing the name of the game, I found this and I am beyond happy to see that GOG is supporting it! As for the game itself (because that's what you're really here for, right?) It's still an absolute blast to play and it has aged tremendously well; much more than other platformers of the time. The platforming is satisfying, the graphics are very smooth, animations are fluid, weapons are awesome, the atmosphere kicks ass, there is plenty of enemies and things to keep the game from feeling stale,, the game is tough as balls at times but while still feeling fair, just, literally EVERYTHING with this game is done right, and I'm not speaking that way purely out of nostalgia. I think it is still a legitimately good game. I was very close to knocking off one star. Obviously, I decided to keep it upon getting this far. But why would I do that for a perfect game like this? Well, there's no music! NONE at all. No ambient stuff, no metal stuff (which would be really fitting for this), no anything. Luckily: 1. The sound design is still great on its own so you probably won't get bored without the music, and 2. This means you could play whatever the hell you want in the background without it feeling like you're taking anything away from the core experience. I recommend playing The Return by Bathory (especially), anything by Slayer, Scream Blood Gore/Leprosy by Death, or really any kind of metal album that's fast or aggressive. Do yourself a favor and just grab this game. If you like platformers at ALL, then you will surely not be disappointed with this one.
I was so surprised and happy when I saw this finally being re-released on GOG, as the steam version had the same issues as the retail release that make it unplayable. It was on here for literally a day (Halloween 2017) and then out of NOWHERE Disappeared entirely, only minutes before I got the chance to buy it. I was wondering why it suddenly disappeared, but after months of thinking it will never return, I can now finally say it's BACK!!!! This is one of my personal favorite horror games of all time, and it does an absolutely PERFECT job in drawing the player in with its immensely dark atmosphere, superb storytelling, and varied locations. Unfortunately, I have to admit as a shooting game on its own, it is definitely not that great. The movement, guns and combat feel very clunky and awkward at best. But the horror.. oh man, it's just a treat. I have to also give props for it's extremely unique "sanity" system. If you look at a monster for too long, or look down a large height for too long, Jack's (the guy you play as) vision will start getting swirly and distorted, and he will start hearing stuff he's not supposed to. If you keep looking at the enemy or whatever while your insanity rises, Jack will eventually freak out and shoot himself. Talk about innovative. This really helps with the immersion, as it's something that most normal people would have happen to them if they were going through a similar situation. The complete lack of a HUD (Heads Up Display) also makes it quite immersive. Aside from the combat, my only real complaint with this game is how stupidly hard it is to figure out what in the world you're actually supposed to be doing. This is probably the only game where I HAD to have a walkthrough help me out at least once in every single level because it is so absurdly unclear what it is you're supposed to be doing or where you're supposed to be going next. You're given small clues in the dialogue, so I guess this was intentionally done to help immerse the player. But as the player itself, they made it way more unclear than they should have. It's easy to miss most of these, so you REALLY have to be paying attention to every single thing said in the dialogue. As for this GOG release itself; it fixes ALL of the previous issues with the retail/steam versions, including a weird bug where the raindrops on the screen appear as squares, and a bug where you can't see one of the bosses due to fog that's not supposed to cover it, so it's otherwise impossible to pass. The only thing negative about this release I have to say at all, is that the framerate became pretty bad. The PC I originally played this on was a Windows Vista with an Nvidia GT 8800. The steam/CD versions have bugs but the game has no issue running at a solid 60-120 frames per second. I don't know what happened, but for whatever reason, this GOG version seems to run locked at 30fps regardless of what I change in my settings. Hopefully, this will be fixed, and as of right now, this is the ONLY reason I have given this a 4-star rating. So the bottom line: If you're looking for a fast-paced satisfying first-person shooter, this is NOT the game for you. If you want a unique, legitimately terrifying Lovecraftian horror based game with an amazingly dark atmosphere that draws you in, and a great story that will keep you intrigued throughout the entire game, then this is not something you should spend another second missing.
I've played Jazz Jackrabbit 2 with my little brother since we were in elementary school for HOURS on end. However, it's not until a year or so ago that I stumbled upon its predecessor, this amazing little gem. Both games still hold up very VERY well, even now in 2018. If you like fast platformers like Sonic or Turrican, this will be right up your alley because it's practically a mix between the two. The framerate is very smooth and fluid, the colors/graphics and animation are absolutely gorgeous, the platforming feels very satisfying, the music is very distinct, memorable, and catchy (as with all of Alexander Brandon's work, ie Unreal) and the game is pretty challenging. Not too hard to where you'd break your keyboard over (unless you type the doom cheat and play the game in nightmare mode), but the perfect amount of challenge. This game's replayability also gives it value in my opinion. I had to do some extra tweaking, but I managed to get an adapter to plug in my original Gravis Gamepad (the "official gamepad of Jazz Jackrabbit"), and I got it to work with this version of the game and it's an absolute blast to play with, no pun intended. That will, in my opinion, be the most enjoyable and definitive way to play this game. I don't want to ramble on for way too long, so I'm just going to cut to the chase and list the very few issues I had with this game; note that all of these issues were fixed in the sequel. If you've already played it and want to see a review on this GOG version itself, then definitely get it, it's a no-brainer. It's a DOSBox port, but it's flawless and perfectly emulates the game in the way it's supposed to run. Absolutely 0 issues. For the game itself though; - I think the camera is way too zoomed in on Jazz, and it makes it kind of hard to navigate. This can lead to some frustration and lead to getting hit by items before you can even realize what happened. - Jazz moves way too fast at times, and this can be somewhat irritating. I mean, there's even times when Jazz goes so fast, the camera just goes over Jazz and you can't even see him. This kind of goes hand in hand with the zoomed in complaint, but oh well. - Sometimes the controls mess up and aren't super responsive, at least on the keyboard. I had no issues using the Gravis Gamepad. This isn't an issue with the GOG release, it's an issue with the game itself because this happens in the DOS version too. These are more small issues with the game than anything that made me not want to play the game. It's still very fun to play, even with these little issues. Aside from that, this is amazing little gem that is well worth everyone's time and money.
AMAZING GAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Tons of fun, especcially for a free game! Try it out!
